Axe’s Research on Evolution

Douglas Axe earned his PhD at Cal Tech. He then spent 14 years doing research in molecular biology at top labs in and around Cambridge University. Axe was sceptical of Darwinian evolution, and he wanted to find ways to actually test what it could and couldn’t do. When Axe returned to America, he formed Biologic Institute to do just that. Axe and his colleagues Ann Gauger and Marci Reeves have conducted experiments that help address the feasibility of Darwinian explanations of the evolution of biological functions at the biochemical level. The research by Axe and his colleagues shows that co-opting even one existing protein to perform a slightly new function is likely beyond the reach of the Darwinian mechanism.

Douglas D. Axe, “The Case Against a Darwinian Origin of Protein Folds”

Douglas D. Axe, “The Limits of Complex Adaptation: An Analysis Based on a Simple Model of Structured Bacterial Populations”

Mariclair A. Reeves, Ann K. Gauger, Douglas D. Axe, “Enzyme Families—Shared Evolutionary History or Shared Design? A Study of the GABA-Aminotransferase Family”

Ann K. Gauger, Douglas D. Axe, “The Evolutionary Accessibility of New Enzymes Functions: A Case Study from the Biotin Pathway”